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Indeed it could be argued that with every new layer of complexity in any storage architecture, we are introducing more potential points of failure if one of those systems finds itself unable to talk to some ageing piece of hardware. As backup vendors never cease to remind us, the best backup process in the world is of little use if you can't restore the data that's been backed up. Yet there is no doubt that most businesses have systems in place that - if we're 100% truthful - we can't be totally sure we can restore, until the moment of truth.

Kroll Ontrack's Paul LeMessurier offers some interesting insights into this topic in an opinion article in this issue, citing some examples that should make us all stop and think: "Knowing what data you own, where it is stored and how to access it quickly in the face of regulatory or legal investigations is now a vital element of day-to-day information management and corporate governance. Think about the recent challenges faced by the financial services sector, for example, including PPI mis-selling and price fixing cartels - organisations are required to search for documents including emails or documents from years before."

Paul argues that there are essentially five different potential approaches to dealing with legacy backups and their migration - and the chances are that most of our readers are already deploying some combination of these in their own environments, albeit without necessarily having an over-riding strategy in place for the whole business. Perhaps most worrying though is option five - do nothing, and, as Paul puts it: "…hope the company does not have to restore any data from any of its legacy backup tapes. However if companies are required to provide data for whatever reason they will need to find a solution very quickly, which may be difficult and very expensive."

David Tyler
david.tyler@btc.co.uk